IKTIMED MEDITERRANEAN
INNOVATIVECOMMUNITY
FINAL REPORT
1
TITLE:
IKTIMED MEDITERRANEAN INNOVATIVECOMMUNITY FINAL
REPORT
YEAR:
2013
AUTHOR:
Toulon Var Technologies in collaboration with Bluenove
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TABLE OF CONTENT
1
Ecosystem Analysis..............................................................................................................................4
1.1
Ecosystem Analysis
the geographical presence .....................................................6
1.2
Ecosystem Analysis
MICs users ......................................................................................7
2
A shared strategic vision ..................................................................................................................8
3
Mediterranean Innovation Communities action plans .................................................. 10
3.1
MIC action plans - Biomed ................................................................................................ 10
3.2
MIC action plans - Smart Home .................................................................................... 13
3.3
MIC action plans - Biotech For Natural Foods ....................................................... 17
3.4
MIC action plans - Eco Energy ......................................................................................... 21
3.5
MIC action plans - Tech Tourism...................................................................................... 24
3.6
MIC action plans - Digital ................................................................................................... 27
4
Communication strategy .............................................................................................................. 30
5
Monitoring and evaluation system........................................................................................... 31
6
The animator role - Actions and responsibilities ............................................................. 34
7
Final recommendations ................................................................................................................. 39
7.1
Final recommendations - bluenove key inputs ........................................................ 42
8
MIC action plans
6 months planning.................................................................................. 43
9
MIC action plans
1 year planning ......................................................................................... 44
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1
ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
The Iktimed project was about providing an online tool on the Iktimed website to
6 of its partners in order to foster the local and international collaboration of
SMEs, around 6 main subjects:
Biomed
The BIOMed Community comprises those activities devoted to biosciences /
biotechnology / biomedicine. It can include research groups, research centres,
scientific and technological parks, public institutions, clusters, SMEs, large companies
and all any other type or organization working or performing research,
development and/or innovation in the mentioned fields. Projects in the bio fields
are usually complex and require synergies among different institutions and
companies in order to achieve the optimal results.
The MIC called BIOMed will aim to promote these links among entities and
enhance cooperation among them to perform projects and share good practices
models and experience.
Smar t Home
The idea is to propose a interoperability framework open and free to permit a
connection among home environment and all household devices as to increase
energy efficiency, safety, and comfort for people who live inside. Home can be the
node of a smart city facilities. To reach this goal it is fundamental to define a
technological framework for all devices and systems and to elaborate all services
and software for devices to be smart and connected.
Biotech for natural foods
This community aims to promote economical, environmental and social
development, through the promotion and valorisation of regional natural species
using biotechnology knowhow, that can contribute to the development of
innovative and profitable products capable of reaching national and international
markets.
Eco-energy
The aim will be to promote more intelligent use of energy resources in the
Mediterranean within its specific context related to climate, socio-economic
realities and cultural. It will be promoting awareness initiatives and contributing to
define incisive and targeted proposals and policies of intervention.
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Tech Tourism
The goal of TechTourism MIC is to establish a network of partners across the med
region, interested in establishing an area sustainable, advanced and/or ICT based
tourism service providers. This community could help cultural and tourism sectors
to make a better use of technologies in order to improve tourist experience and
competitiveness of firms operating in this sector.
Digital
The idea is to help promote the local digital communities (SMEs, large groups,
workshops, barcamps and promotional events. The network will aim to develop
new offers and collaborations with the university, school engineers, local research
centres and innovation actors. By creating a digital & creative MIC, we aim at
enlarging the scope of B2B cooperation, collaborative projects ... and reach
European partnerships!
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1.1
ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
THE GEOGRAPHICAL PRESENCE
6
1.2
ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
MICS USERS
7
2
A SHARED STRATEGIC VISION
survey in order to identify each respondents expectations.
34 people answered the survey. All MICs were represented. Here are the main
results that came out of this study:
76% of the respondents would like to use virtual communities more often,
believing it could help them improve their market position, evaluate market
oppor tunities and better define their strategy.
70% would use it to improve their technological competitiveness.
56% think it could have a positive influence on their organizational
competitiveness.
Only 44% of the respondents already have some cooperation experiences
with other regional organizations.
But 88% are interested in stepping ahead and cooperating with others.
70% are ready to spend time on a virtual tool
92% if they are suppor ted to do so by a dedicated person or team
Only 34% are already using some social tools for professional matters
None of those tools are collaborative tools
This study also helped to highlight what could be the main objectives of the
Mediterranean Innovation Communities.
The assumption being that each community should have its own goals, but that all
of them could be related at a Mediterranean level.
Here is the list of macro-objectives the study helped us to identify:
1. Develop business par tnerships (commercial, industrial)
2. Exchange of technical / scientific information
3. Access to market
information
(demand, consumer trend,
internationalisation, market segmentation)
4. Access to information on financing, call for proposal, tender, incentives
5. Business planning
6. Technology forecast
7. University / enterprise cooperation
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All participants agreed on the fact that those MICs could help them to get more
visibility and to present their respective activities. At first at a local level, their first
expectation being to develop market opportunities in their geographical area.
But in a second time, they also want to take benefits from the experiences of all
their potential relatives all across the Mediterranean area.
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3
3.1
MEDITERRANEAN INNOVATION COMMUNITIES ACTION PLANS
MIC ACTION PLANS - BIOMED
10
11
12
3.2
MIC ACTION PLANS - SMART HOME
13
14
15
16
3.3
MIC ACTION PLANS - BIOTECH FOR NATURAL FOODS
17
18
19
20
3.4
MIC ACTION PLANS - ECO ENERGY
21
22
23
3.5
MIC ACTION PLANS - TECH TOURISM
24
25
26
3.6
MIC ACTION PLANS - DIGITAL
27
28
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4
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
An open innovation initiative comes along with a strong communication strategy, in order to recruit more participants, but also
to value the work that has been done and make it a collaboration reference.
At first it is important to promote the MICs on the Iktimed website
campaigns, paper documents, social medias if some accounts do exist. The messages that should be displayed are many:
- A pitch of the open innovation initiative
- A tool presentation
- A list of par tnership / collaborative success stories that happened thanks to the platform, both at a regional and at
transnational size.
In terms of content, nothing has more impact than a testimony. Shooting some video interviews of MICs key users could
be a way to bring value to the initiative and award the MIC member.
We can then imagine punctual events that boost the participation on the MICs and motivate potential new members:
Running a challenge. With all the required dedicated communication, Iktimed could organize a 1 to 3 months challenge on the
online tool in order to generate efficient and innovative collaboration models on the online tool.
Those targeted campaigns are very efficient if they are well conducted and animated.
It is also very important to gather the MICs participants during physical events (like the Seminar in Barcelona) at least once a
year. It could be a workshop, roundtables, or a communication event during which Iktimed and the MICs participants could
present the first results they came up with.
In terms of communication, the possible mobilization of a public European organization could be a valuable asset.
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5
MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEM
In order to measure and analyse the efficiency of the 6 MICs , a dedicated Leader board must be created and filled in by the
animators.
That way, the par ticipation progress will be analysed, and the animation team will know what leverage should be activated in
order to correct any misconduct or negative effect.
Here are some examples of quantitative key performance indicators that could be analysed:
- Number of users
- Number of active users (more than 5 interactions a week : post / comment / vote)
- Number of visits
- Page views
- Number of post
- Number of comments
- Number of votes
- Number of multimedia files posted
- Number of documents posted
- Number of events planned
- Number of web links
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- Number of questions
- Number of answers / solutions per question
- Number of projects
- Timing of projects
- Number of business driven contributions
- Contributors / readers
- Number of contributions per month
- Audience (measure the amount of members who read conversations)
- Initiative
use of posting features)
- Responsiveness (members reaction to conversations: comments, votes, participation to events)
- Liveliness (how much members engage others with notifications and messages)
-
phatic conversations
- Share of collaborative interactions
 Concrete results / best practices / success stories
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This quantitative analysis should be completed with a qualitative survey after 3 to 4 months of collaboration.
Here are some examples of qualitative elements that could be analysed:
- Level of global satisfaction
- Connexion regularity
- Feedbacks on the different collaboration steps on the online tool (user experience)
- Feedbacks on the online tool functionalities
- Feedbacks on the quality of information available on the online tool
- Level and nature of collaboration (interactions with others)
- Global improvement recommendations
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6
THE ANIMATOR ROLE - ACTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
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35
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7
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
better than what they are today.
It is not only required to identify MIC animators to recruit, mobilize and stimulate each community. It is also very important to
gather some key contextual elements that help start a common experimentation.
1. An adapted communication plan
2. An efficient web tool
3. A perfect timing
4. A physical relay event
5. A common vision
6. Dedicated micro and macro-objectives
7. Community Management trainings for the animators
8. A first pool of key participants
9. A relevant and regular results analysis
10. A strong sponsorship
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In order to make sure the MICs project is in line with its ambition, a key elements has to be challenged.
The most important one relies on the tool hosting the MICs.
this tool is not appropriate. And we know that everything relies on the tool in
first place. This improved version of a regular forum is not adapted to the communities 'needs.
If Iktimed wants to lead this MIC project and to make it a success, we strongly recommend the teams to choose an adapted
platform that could answer all the specific needs communities such as MICs could express:
- Real groups creation
- One single platform. One group per MIC
- All collaborative functionalities available: posts with a strong editorial tool, comments, votes, notifications, ideas,
- Possibility to create private messages
- Mobile accessibility. A lot of tools are now accessible from a Smartphone or a tablet thanks to dedicated free
applications
- Possibility to personalize the general design of the platform
- Possibility to personalize the messages
- Possibility to display some relevant information to the users
- Possibility for each MIC animator to manage the back-office of his group
- A strong repor ting section. With an automated analysis of the main performance indicators
- A strong back-office management tool
- A confidentiality levels management depending on the group Iktimed will open
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- A lot of reasonable tools do exist today.
- Ideas management tools, professional social networks, micro-blogging tools, crowdsourcing tools, problem solving or
beta-test tools.
- It could be key to adopt such a tool in order to give the MICs a rebir th.
- However, those tools are rarely free. It is also important to anticipate the budget that could be necessary to implement
such a platform.
- To give an example, such tools could go from 5 000 euros a year to 30 000 or 40 000 euros a year, depending on what
the customer chooses for functionalities and what kind of tool he decides to use.
- This tool will then need someone to parameter it, do the design and think its global architecture. It could be managed by
an external consultant that could allocate some man/days to do this production.
- Then, the tool needs off course to rely on animators. But they are usually very well designed to help those animators to
do their work efficiently.
- In terms of budget, and considering that June 2013 / June 2014 would be the first year of experimentation with
this new project design, an overall budget (platform + consulting + communication) could amount to 25 000 to
60 000 euros.
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7.1
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS - BLUENOVE KEY INPUTS
42
8
MIC ACTION PLANS
6 MONTHS PLANNING
43
9
MIC ACTION PLANS
1 YEAR PLANNING
44
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